34 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



of the mountains on which stands Taormine *, with 

 its magnificent amphitheatre facing Mount Etna, 

 whose black lava beds reached nearly to the point 

 which we occupied. Here we resumed our labours 

 with increased ardour, and feeling that the close of 

 the season was now approaching, we directed our 

 efforts rather to the completion of the studies which 

 we had already begun than to the attempt of making 

 new discoveries, and in this respect the Bay of 

 Taormine was admirably adapted to our purpose. 

 Indeed, notwithstanding the oppressive heat, which 

 daily raised the thermometer to the height of 112 F., 



* On reaching Taormine from the south coast, the road follows 

 the sinuosities of the sea-shore, skirting along the side of a tolerably 

 well cultivated coast, till it reaches the point of Castel-Sciso, which 

 forms the commencement of a bay, which is bounded by Mount 

 Taurus. It was at the base of this little gulf, that the ancient city 

 rose on different plateaux of the mountain. Owing to its difficulty 

 of access, it was almost always the last place taken by the conquerors 

 of Sicily. The Saracens did not definitely become masters of it 

 until the year 961, and their possession of it retarded for a long 

 time their final expulsion from the country by the Normans. The 

 ancient Tauromenium, which was formerly one of the most splendid 

 cities of ancient Sicily, is now a very unimportant place, but its 

 situation is magnificent, and its ancient ruins, which date from 

 various epochs, offer a variety of aspects, presenting a degree of 

 incomparable beauty. Among its many splendid remains, there is 

 none that can be compared to the amphitheatre. Elevated upon 

 one of the heights, which command the plateau of Mount Taurus* 

 and partly cut out of the rock, this edifice, by its situation, is one 

 of the most picturesque that it is possible to imagine. Its form 

 and its principal arrangement testify to its Greek origin, while 

 Roman splendour is ostentatiously apparent in the traces of 

 thorough re-construction which this theatre seems to have under- 

 gone under Augustus. It was adapted to hold from eleven to 

 twelve thousand spectators. 



